The Dream Of Spaceflight

Download The Dream Of Spaceflight PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Da Capo Press
ISBN 13 : 9780306810480
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (14 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Dream Of Spaceflight by : Wyn Wachhorst

Download or read book The Dream Of Spaceflight written by Wyn Wachhorst and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2001-05-17 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of few truly gifted essayists who have turned their talents to science, Wyn Wachhorst here fashions a luminous meditation on the meaning of space exploration from a montage of images and reflections on humanity's dream of spaceflight. In a survey of major figures from Johannes Kepler to Wernher von Braun, he sees in the rise of spaceflight a metaphor of modern history as a recurrent story of transformation and rebirth. Other essays offer new perspectives on the nature of wonder, recall the romantic vision of the decades prior to Sputnik ("nostalgia for a bygone future"), and look at the larger meaning of the moon landing, seeing in spaceflight not only a spiritual quest in the broadest sense of the word, but a cure for the withered capacity for wonder that afflicts the postmodern mind.

Moonbound

Download Moonbound PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Hill and Wang
ISBN 13 : 1466899352
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Moonbound by : Jonathan Fetter-Vorm

Download or read book Moonbound written by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm and published by Hill and Wang. This book was released on 2019-06-04 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On a summer night in 1969, two men climbed down a ladder onto a sea of dust at the edge of an ancient dream. When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first set foot on lunar soil, the moon ceased to be a place of mystery and myth. It became a destination. Now, on the fiftieth anniversary of that journey, Moonbound tells the monumental story of the moon and the men who went there first. With vibrant images and meticulous attention to detail, Jonathan Fetter-Vorm conjures the long history of the visionaries, stargazers, builders, and adventurers who sent Apollo 11 on its legendary voyage. From the wisdom of the Babylonians to the intrigues of the Cold War, from the otherworldly discoveries of Galileo to the dark legacy of Nazi atrocities, from the exhilarating trajectories of astronauts—recounted in their own words—to the unsung brilliance of engineers working behind the scenes, Moonbound captures the grand arc of the Space Age in a graphic history of unprecedented scope and profound lyricism.

See You In Orbit? Our Dream Of Spaceflight

Download See You In Orbit? Our Dream Of Spaceflight PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781733265706
Total Pages : 500 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (657 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis See You In Orbit? Our Dream Of Spaceflight by : Alan Ladwig

Download or read book See You In Orbit? Our Dream Of Spaceflight written by Alan Ladwig and published by . This book was released on 2019-10-09 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries, a journey to space has been a shared dream of millions around the world. We have patiently, and impatiently, anticipated Sunday afternoon drives down celestial freeways. Yet, since 1961 when human space travel began, fewer than 560 professional astronauts, cosmonauts, taikonauts and a-half dozen millionaires have seen Earth from a vantage point in space. Given so few orbiting travelers, what made so many ordinary people think they had the slightest chance to fulfill their dream? Because for decades, visionaries, government officials, space companies, and the media told us our ticket to ride was just a rocket away. All we had to do was "keep the dream alive." With so much optimism, shouldn't we all be there by now? See You In Orbit? Our Dream of Spaceflight will be the first non-fiction book to take a historical, personal, irreverent, and often-humorous look at the promises, expectations, principal personalities, and milestones regarding the goal and dream we have to fly in space.

Dream Missions

Download Dream Missions PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319539418
Total Pages : 253 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (195 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Dream Missions by : Michel van Pelt

Download or read book Dream Missions written by Michel van Pelt and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-05-24 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book takes the reader on a journey through the history of extremely ambitious, large and complex space missions that never happened. What were the dreams and expectations of the visionaries behind these plans, and why were they not successful in bringing their projects to reality thus far? As spaceflight development progressed, new technologies and ideas led to pushing the boundaries of engineering and technology though still grounded in real scientific possibilities. Examples are space colonies, nuclear-propelled interplanetary spacecraft, space telescopes consisting of multiple satellites and canon launch systems. Each project described in this book says something about the dreams and expectations of their time, and their demise was often linked to an important change in the cultural, political and social state of the world. For each mission or spacecraft concept, the following will be covered: • Description of the design. • Overview of the history of the concept and the people involved. • Why it was never developed and flown • What if the mission was actually carried out – consequences, further developments, etc.

Rocket Dreams

Download Rocket Dreams PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0743254171
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (432 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Rocket Dreams by : Marina Benjamin

Download or read book Rocket Dreams written by Marina Benjamin and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2003-05-25 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1958, mankind's centuries-long flirtation with space flight became a torrid love affair. For a decade, tens of millions of people were enraptured -- first, by the U.S.-Soviet race to the moon, and finally, as America outstripped its rival, by Project Apollo alone. It is now more than three decades since the last man walked on the moon...more time than between the first moonwalk and the beginning of World War II. Apollo did not, as had been promised by a generation of visionaries, herald the beginning of the Space Age, but its end. Or did it? Project Apollo, like a cannonball, reached its apogee and returned to earth, but the trajectory of that return was complex. America's atmosphere -- its economic, scientific, and cultural atmosphere -- made for a very complicated reentry that produced many solutions to the trajectory problem. Rocket Dreams is about those solutions...about the places where the space program landed. In Rocket Dreams, an extraordinarily talented young writer named Marina Benjamin will take you on a journey to those landing sites. A visit with retired astronauts at a celebrity autograph show is a starting point down the divergent paths taken by the pioneers, including Edgar Mitchell, founder of the "church" of Noëtic Sciences. Roswell, New Mexico is a landing site of a different order, the "magnetic north" of UFO belief in the United States -- a belief that began its most dramatic growth precisely at the time that the path of the space program began its descent. In the vernacular, the third law of motion states that what goes up, must come down. Thus the tremendous motive force that energized the space program didn't just vanish; it was conserved and transformed, making bestsellers out of fantasy literature, spawning Gaia, and giving symbolism to the environmental movement. Everything from the pop cultural boom in ufology to the worldwide Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) feeds on the energy given off by America's leap toward space. Rocket Dreams is an eloquent tour of this Apollo-scarred landscape. It is also an introduction to some of the most fascinating characters imaginable: Some long dead, like the crackpot visionary Alfred Lawson, who saw in space flight a new stage of human evolution ("Alti-Man"), or Robert Goddard, the father of rocketry, whose workshop in Roswell stands only half a mile from shops selling posters of alien visitors. Others are very much alive -- like Stewart Brand, creator of the Whole Earth Catalog and partner with Gerard O'Neill in the drive to build free-floating space colonies, and SETI astronomer Seth Shostak, who has spent decades listening to the skies, hoping for the first contact with another intelligent species. Perceptive, original, and wonderfully written, informed by history, science, and an acute knowledge of popular culture, Rocket Dreams is a brilliant book by a remarkable talent.

Realizing Tomorrow

Download Realizing Tomorrow PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 1496209664
Total Pages : 420 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (962 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Realizing Tomorrow by : Chris Dubbs

Download or read book Realizing Tomorrow written by Chris Dubbs and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2020-04-01 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: U.S.A.F. Chief of Staff 2013 Professional Reading List Selection Nearly forty years passed between the Apollo moon landings, the grandest accomplishment of a government-run space program, and the Ansari X PRIZE-winning flights of SpaceShipOne, the greatest achievement of a private space program. Now, as we hover on the threshold of commercial spaceflight, authors Chris Dubbs and Emeline Paat-Dahlstrom look back at how we got to this point. Their book traces the lives of the individuals who shared the dream that private individuals and private enterprise belong in space. Realizing Tomorrow provides a behind-the-scenes look at the visionaries, the crackpots, the financial schemes, the legal wrangling, the turf battles, and--underpinning the entire drama--the overwhelming desire of ordinary people to visit outer space. A compelling story of the pioneers of commercial spaceflight--and their efforts to open the final frontier to everyone--this book traces the path to private spaceflight even as it offers an instructive, entertaining, and cautionary note about its future.

Lost in Space

Download Lost in Space PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0375727736
Total Pages : 434 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (757 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Lost in Space by : Greg Klerkx

Download or read book Lost in Space written by Greg Klerkx and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2005-01-11 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The daring, revolutionary NASA that sent Neil Armstrong to the moon has lost its meteoric vision, says journalist and space enthusiast Greg Klerkx. NASA, he contends, has devolved from a pioneer of space exploration into a factionalized bureaucracy focused primarily on its own survival. And as a result, humans haven’t ventured beyond Earth orbit for three decades. Klerkx argues that after its wildly successful Apollo program, NASA clung fiercely to the spotlight by creating a government-sheltered monopoly with a few Big Aerospace companies. Although committed in theory to supporting commercial spaceflight, in practice it smothered vital private-sector innovation. In striking descriptions of space milestones spanning the golden 1960s Space Age and the 2003 Columbia tragedy, Klerkx exposes the “real” NASA and envisions exciting public-private cooperation that could send humans back to the moon and beyond.

Spaceplane HERMES

Download Spaceplane HERMES PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 3319444727
Total Pages : 593 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (194 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Spaceplane HERMES by : Luc van den Abeelen

Download or read book Spaceplane HERMES written by Luc van den Abeelen and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-11-26 with total page 593 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first comprehensive book on the European Hermes program. It tells the fascinating story of how Europe aimed for an independent manned spaceflight capability which was to complement US and Soviet/Russian space activities. In 1975, France decided to expand its plans for automated satellites for materials processing to include the development of a small 10 ton spaceplane to be launched on top of a future heavy-lifting Ariane rocket. This Hermes spaceplane would give Europe its own human spaceflight capability for shuttling crews between Earth and space stations. The European Space Agency backed the proposal. Unfortunately, after detailed studies, the project was cancelled in 1993. If Hermes had been introduced into service, it could have become the preferred "space taxi" for ferrying crews to and from the International Space Station. But that opportunity was lost. This book provides the first look of the complete story of and reasons for the demise of this ambitious program. It also gives an account which pieces of Hermes survived and are active in the 2nd decade of the 21st century. This fascinating story will be a great read for space enthusiasts. But it will also serve as a comprehensive documentation of an important episode in the history of manned spaceflight.

My Dream of Stars

Download My Dream of Stars PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN 13 : 9780230112216
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (122 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis My Dream of Stars by : Anousheh Ansari

Download or read book My Dream of Stars written by Anousheh Ansari and published by St. Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 2011-04-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In her heartwarming and empowering memoir, space pioneer Anousheh Ansari tells the story of her childhood in Iran and her family's exodus to America after the Islamic Revolution. After settling down in Texas, Anousheh built a computer technology firm from the ground up, which eventually realized a net worth of $750 million and ultimately allowed her to achieve her childhood dream of spaceflight. In her groundbreaking role as the first-ever female commercial spaceflight participant, her story became politicized and fraught with the prejudices and obstacles she had to overcome as an Iranian woman, culminating in a debate over whether she would be allowed to display both the American and Iranian flags on the sleeve of her spacesuit. After her return to Earth, Anousheh started The Ansari Foundation, a quickly growing nonprofit which supports social entrepreneurship, and is especially committed to ensuring the freedom of women around the world and supporting female entrepreneurs. Ultimately, this evocative story shows the triumph of a woman who has become a role model to people around the globe struggling to overcome economic and cultural barriers, as well as those dreamers who look upon the stars and wish to soar among them.

The Benefits of Spaceflight and Space Exploration

Download The Benefits of Spaceflight and Space Exploration PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Encyclopaedia Britannica
ISBN 13 : 1680486640
Total Pages : 48 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (84 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis The Benefits of Spaceflight and Space Exploration by : Jason Porterfield

Download or read book The Benefits of Spaceflight and Space Exploration written by Jason Porterfield and published by Encyclopaedia Britannica. This book was released on 2017-07-15 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "For millennia, humanity has looked to the stars with wonder and longing. The dream of taking flight and exploring the solar system was realized in the 1950s, when the first satellites and manned orbital missions were launched. Humans continue to send scientific instruments, telescopes, and astronauts into space in an effort to learn more about the universe and about Earth. This book will explain the practical and scientific benefits of space exploration, from tracking climate change to global cooperation through shared research."

New Space Frontiers

Download New Space Frontiers PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Zenith Press
ISBN 13 : 1627885471
Total Pages : 176 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (278 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis New Space Frontiers by : Piers Bizony

Download or read book New Space Frontiers written by Piers Bizony and published by Zenith Press. This book was released on 2014-10-15 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Take a journey into the New Space Frontier! It is easy to imagine that the space shuttle's retirement has edged the Space Age toward closure, at least in terms of human flight beyond the bounds of earth. In fact, there are more people-carrying ships being constructed now than at any time since Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space half a century ago. Some are already servicing the International Space Station - which, incidentally, has ensured a permanent human presence in space for the last two decades, and is set to continue and expand for decades yet to come. What's more, NASA is no longer the only big player in the space game. Commercial, non-governmental space exploration is becoming a reality rather than just a pipe dream. What orbital adventures await us in the next five decades? Will humans ever again head into deep space, as the Apollo astronauts once did? NASA's new hardware is aimed toward asteroid missions, and ultimately, Mars, but there is a significant chance that a government funded space agency will not be the only - or even the first - organization to send humans across the solar system. Get ready to experience the excitement of adventure with New Space Frontier. Through gorgeous photography and engaging writing, noted space and science author Piers Bizony speculates beyond just today's hardware and explores what might be possible for the next generation.

SpaceX

Download SpaceX PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 1461455146
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (614 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis SpaceX by : Erik Seedhouse

Download or read book SpaceX written by Erik Seedhouse and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-15 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This first account of commercial spaceflight’s most successful venture describes the extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement that have placed SpaceX at the forefront of the launch industry and made it the most likely candidate for transporting humans to Mars. Since its inception in 2002, SpaceX has sought to change the space launch paradigm by developing a family of launch vehicles that will ultimately reduce the cost and increase the reliability of space access tenfold. Coupled with the newly emerging market for governmental, private, and commercial space transport, this new model will re-ignite humanity's efforts to explore and develop space. Formed in 2002 by Elon Musk, the founder of PayPal and the Zip2 Corporation, SpaceX has already developed two state-of-the-art new launch vehicles, established an impressive launch manifest, and been awarded COTS funding by NASA to demonstrate delivery and return of cargo to the ISS. This book describes how simplicity, low-cost, and reliability can go hand in hand, as promoted in the philosophy of SpaceX. It explains how, by eliminating the traditional layers of internal management and external sub-contractors and keeping the vast majority of manufacturing in house, SpaceX reduces its costs while accelerating decision making and delivery, controls quality, and ensures constant liaison between the design and manufacturing teams.

Realizing the Dream of Flight

Download Realizing the Dream of Flight PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Government Printing Office
ISBN 13 : 9780160831515
Total Pages : 336 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (315 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Realizing the Dream of Flight by : National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Download or read book Realizing the Dream of Flight written by National Aeronautics and Space Administration and published by Government Printing Office. This book was released on 2005-12-31 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These essays in celebration of the Wright brothers' first flight 100 years ago grew out of presentations by a group of prominent scholars in 2003 at a conference sponsored by the NASA History Division and held at the Great Lakes Science Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The volume focuses on the careers of some of the many men and women who helped to realize the dream of flight both through the atmosphere and beyond. These accounts are original and compelling because they examine the history of flight through the lens of biography.

How to Make a Spaceship

Download How to Make a Spaceship PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0698405854
Total Pages : 448 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (984 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis How to Make a Spaceship by : Julian Guthrie

Download or read book How to Make a Spaceship written by Julian Guthrie and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-09-20 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times bestseller! The historic race that reawakened the promise of manned spaceflight A Finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Alone in a Spartan black cockpit, test pilot Mike Melvill rocketed toward space. He had eighty seconds to exceed the speed of sound and begin the climb to a target no civilian pilot had ever reached. He might not make it back alive. If he did, he would make history as the world’s first commercial astronaut. The spectacle defied reason, the result of a competition dreamed up by entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, whose vision for a new race to space required small teams to do what only the world’s largest governments had done before. Peter Diamandis was the son of hardworking immigrants who wanted their science prodigy to make the family proud and become a doctor. But from the age of eight, when he watched Apollo 11 land on the Moon, his singular goal was to get to space. When he realized NASA was winding down manned space flight, Diamandis set out on one of the great entrepreneurial adventure stories of our time. If the government wouldn’t send him to space, he would create a private space flight industry himself. In the 1990s, this idea was the stuff of science fiction. Undaunted, Diamandis found inspiration in an unlikely place: the golden age of aviation. He discovered that Charles Lindbergh made his transatlantic flight to win a $25,000 prize. The flight made Lindbergh the most famous man on earth and galvanized the airline industry. Why, Diamandis thought, couldn’t the same be done for space flight? The story of the bullet-shaped SpaceShipOne, and the other teams in the hunt, is an extraordinary tale of making the impossible possible. It is driven by outsized characters—Burt Rutan, Richard Branson, John Carmack, Paul Allen—and obsessive pursuits. In the end, as Diamandis dreamed, the result wasn’t just a victory for one team; it was the foundation for a new industry and a new age.

Shattered Dreams

Download Shattered Dreams PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 1496214226
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (962 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Shattered Dreams by : Colin Burges

Download or read book Shattered Dreams written by Colin Burges and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2019-05-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shattered Dreams delves into the personal stories and recollections of several men and women who were in line to fly a specific or future space mission but lost that opportunity due to personal reasons, mission cancellations, or even tragedies. While some of the subjects are familiar names in spaceflight history, the accounts of others are told here for the first time. Colin Burgess features spaceflight candidates from the United States, Russia, Indonesia, Australia, and Great Britain. Shattered Dreams brings to new life such episodes and upheavals in spaceflight history as the saga of the three Apollo missions that were cancelled due to budgetary constraints and never flew; NASA astronaut Patricia Hilliard Robertson, who died of burn injuries after her airplane crashed before she had a chance to fly into space; and a female cosmonaut who might have become the first journalist to fly in space. Another NASA astronaut was preparing to fly an Apollo mission before he was diagnosed with a disqualifying illness. There is also the amazing story of the pilot who could have bailed out of his damaged aircraft but held off while heroically avoiding a populated area and later applied to NASA to fulfill his cherished dream of becoming an astronaut despite having lost both legs in the accident. These are the incredibly human stories of competitive realists fired with an unquenchable passion. Their accounts reveal in their own words—and those of others close to them—how their shared ambition would go awry through personal accidents, illness, the Challenger disaster, death, or other circumstances.

No Dream Is Too High

Download No Dream Is Too High PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 1426216505
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (262 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis No Dream Is Too High by : Buzz Aldrin

Download or read book No Dream Is Too High written by Buzz Aldrin and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2016-04-05 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beloved American hero and astronaut Buzz Aldrin reflects on the wisdom, guiding principles, and irreverent anecdotes he's gathered—both in outer space and on earth—through his event-filled life, in this inspiring guide-to-life for the next generation. Everywhere he goes, crowds gather to meet Buzz Aldrin. He is a world-class hero, a larger-than-life figurehead, best known of a generation of astronauts whose achievements surged in just a few years from first man in space to first men on the moon. Now he pauses to reflect and share what he has learned, from the vantage point not only of outer space but also of time: still a non-stop traveler and impassioned advocate for space exploration, Aldrin will be 86 in 2016. No Dream Is Too High whittles down Buzz Aldrin's event-filled life into a short list of principles he values, each illustrated by fascinating anecdotes and memories, such as: · Second comes right after first. NASA protocol should have meant he was first on the moon, but rules changed just before the mission. How he learned to be proud of being the second man on the moon. · Look for opportunities, not obstacles. Buzz was rejected the first time he applied to be an astronaut. Failure is an opportunity to learn to do better. · Always maintain your spirit of adventure. For his 80th birthday, Buzz went diving in the Galapagos and hitched a ride on a whale shark. He stays fit, energetic, and fascinated with life. No Dream Is Too High is a beautiful memento, a thought-provoking set of ideas, and a new opportunity for Buzz Aldrin to connect with the masses of people who recognize his unique place in human history.

Spacefarers

Download Spacefarers PDF Online Free

Author :
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 1935623966
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (356 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!


Book Synopsis Spacefarers by : Michael J. Neufeld

Download or read book Spacefarers written by Michael J. Neufeld and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2016-02-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recent 50th anniversaries of the first human spaceflights by the Soviet Union and the United States, and the 30th anniversary of the launching of the first U.S. Space Shuttle mission, have again brought to mind the pioneering accomplishments of the first quarter century of humans in space. Historians, political scientists and others have extensively examined the technical, programmatic and political history of human spaceflight from the 1960s to the 1980s, but work is only beginning on the social and cultural history of the pioneering era. One rapidly developing area of recent scholarship is the examination of the images of spacefarers in the media, government propaganda and popular culture. How was space travel imagined in the visual media on the cusp of human spaceflights? How were astronauts and cosmonauts represented in official and quasi-official media portraits? And how were those images reproduced and transformed by in the imagination of film-makers, movie producers, popular writers, and novelists? Spacefarers addresses these questions with nine contributions from scholars in the field of aerospace history, Russian and American history, and English literature. These essays are preceded by an introduction by the editor, who discusses their place in the historiography of spaceflight and social and cultural history. The book will have potential appeal to a wide variety of scholars in history, literature and the social sciences and will include a number of striking visual images.